stories and questions at propertyman@foxnews.com. i'm bob massi. and i'll see you next week. [ woman vocalizing ] ♪ [ cheering ] >> the original hoop dream. >> these really are the rules here -- 1891, james naismith. granddad's signature. >> incredible. >> one family's heirloom... >> you think your great-grandfather could ever envision that the game he developed could be what it is today? >> ...goes on one wild ride. >> he starts looking around and thinks, "oh, my goodness. where are the rules?" >> no. a big price tag.al treasure with >> you paid more than the emancipation proclamation. >> yeah, well... [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm on the road in lawrence, kansas, on my way to the university of kansas home of the jayhawks, one of the most storied teams in all of basketball. now, kansas is actually not where the tale of this strange inheritance begins, but through a turn of events, it does wind up here. >> in 1939, my grandfather, dr. james naismith passed away and left us an artifact that dates back to 1891. >> he was my great-grandfather, and what he left us was the magna carta of basketball. >> naismiths. jamie. >> i'm jim. good to meet you. >> hi, jim. how are you? >> jamie, i'm sean naismith. >> great to meet you both. >> likewise. >> i am interested to hear about your strange inheritance. i'm awfully curious what the connection is to k.u. >> we'd love to show you. my great-grandfather, dr. james naismith, started the first basketball teams here at k.u. [ whistle blows ] >> but time out! let's reset the clock.

the boy who would grow up to invent basketball, james naismith, is born in ontario, canada, in 1861.at aged sister are orphaned en both their parents die of typhoid fever. >> the three kids were left with a bachelor uncle. now, that is not the softest person to be raising three kids on a farm. i know for sure that he just deeply missed his mother. >> james drops out of school at the age of 15 to work in a lumber mill. by 19, he's working hard and drinking harder. >> he was in the bar drinking too much, and there was an older man down at the end of the bar and said, "are you margaret young's son?" and he said, "i am." the response was, "she'd roll over in her grave if she saw you now." he made a decision to go back to high school at the age of 20. >> and after that to mcgill university. james letters in rugby and soccer while earning degrees in

physical education and theology. it's just the résumé one employer is looking for. >> he talked to some people that encouraged him to take a look and see what the ymca is up to. >> the y? >> ymca, yeah -- young men's christian association. >> at the time, legions of young men are leaving farm country for cities. they're rowdy and unchaperoned. jumping into the breach, the ymca, founded on the principle of muscular christianity. its mission -- to promote clean christian living through athletics. >> the thought was -- we can teach more through athletics than wcan from t pult. james' pulpibecomes the ymca training center in springfield, massachusetts. in december 1891, he's tasked with creating an indoor activity for a group of young men during the winter. so, he dreams this game up? >> he had to start from scratch,

and that's when the thinking started. >> the light bulb goes on one night, and he's ready to start the next morning. >> evidently, he asked the maintenance man there, "i need a box -- you know, something you can put a ball in." and he came back and said, "i can't find any boxes. i got a couple of peach baskets." >> oh, my -- for peaches. james hangs one up at each end of the gym, 10 feet high -- only because that's where he could get the nails in. he picked up a soccer ball because it was big enough where you had to hold it out. you couldn't hide it. the arched shot came from the little game of "duck on a rock," a kid's game in canada. >> then, he calls the boys in. >> he describes the first game. he said, "i had multiple black eyes, a dislocated shoulder, one guy completely knocked out." >> but the new game's a big hit. his young men begged to play again, so james tries to civilize it a bit. he types of 13 basic rules and

tacks them to a board in the gym. "if basketball is your religion, these are the tablets moses brought down from the mountain." do you have a copy of those?the. >> so, let me just take a look. basketball he has "basket ball." >> yeah. >> two words. >> yeah. evidently, somebody suggested naismith ball, and he said, "i don't think that'll work." >> a month later, in january 1892, naismith's basketball rules are publish in the springfield college newspaper. rule 1 says, "the ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands." and the games supposed to be non-ntact. there's no shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking. ♪ >> hey, coach. i'm jamie. >> hi, jamie. how are you? >> i asked some young players from the mokan basketball program in kansas city to demonstrate for you how today's

hoops differ from the original game. so, coach, the naismith version of basketball has 13 rules. now you have 150 pages of rules in the nba. what are the big differences? >> the big difference is rule #3. back in the olden days, you had to actually pass the ball, and right where you catch it, you had to stop right there. so now the guys can actually dribble and go places. i don't know -- no dribbling? you instructed the guys to give us a little demonstration of how it's done. >> go right ahead. [ whistle blows ] >> that's right. i'm calling the shots. [ buzzer ] [ bell dings ] >> at this point, they can't dribble the ball at all. they just have to move and pass. teamwork's coming into play now. [ bell dings ] the game's a little bit slower, a little bit harder to get up and down the floor. >> right. nicely done. do you ever think that basketball went in a direction

that is different than what it was originally intended? i think it's better now, and it's more entertaining. >> you think your great-grandfather could ever envision that the game he developed uld be what it is today? >> he saw it change a lot in his lifetime. you know, many rules come into the game -- some he was happy about, some he wasn't so happy about. >> what was his vision? was it just about an athletic sport, or more? >> he said building character was something that he strove for, along with athleticism. >> building character through athletics -- james really spreads that gospel. when after marrying and earning his md, he joins the university of kansas as chaplain and p.e. instructor. it's 1898. his first move -- start a college hoops team. soon, basketball is played at schools across the u.s. and by newly formed professional teams.

naismith even sees his game go global, thanks to the ymca's christian missionaries who teach it overseas. your grandfather must have been a very wealthy man. >> wrong. [ laughs ] >> wait, look at where basketball is today. multi-million-dollar contracts, endorsements, and the merchandising. didn't he ever protect his ownership? >> no, he characterized the game as a gift. >> but even a christian can make a buck. >> well, that's true, but what was his bottom line? make the world a better place for having been here. >> dr. naismith said, "it's hard to describe to anybody the feeling i get when i'm in a foreign country and i see on some back road a basketball hoop nailed up to a tree. that means more to me than $1 million dollars. >> which brings us back to those original rules he wrote in 1891. what did james do with them? >> he was a woodworker, and he actually built a sideboard, and he kept a little secret

compartment that the rules were kept in for many years. >> seems he always knew he was onto something. so does his youngest son, james naismith jr. in 1931, he gets his aging father to authenticate his 13 rules with a signature. >> this says, "first draft of basketball rules, hung in the gym that the boys might learn the rules." >> mm-hmm. >> when james dies in 1939, that original statement of the rules passes to james jr., jim's father. a nail-biting ride is about to begin. did he carry it around, the original? >> he carried around the original rules. >> he had it insured, though. >> he did not have it insured. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the answer after the break. whether it's connecting one of the world's most innovative campuses.

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>> it's b, moses malone, in the 1978-79 season for the houston rockets. he was paid exactly $1 million. >> when dr. james naismith dies in 1939, he leaves his son james jr. a strange inheritance, two typewritten pages outlining his invention -- basketball.

almost immediately, the game explodes into a worldwide phenomenon. by 1959, they're even building a hall of fame in basketball's birthplace -- springfield, massachusetts. james naismith is not only the first inductee. the place is named after him. his son loans the museum the rules. >> the goal is to display them, show the world. >> by the time james naismith jr. dies in 1980, his heirs are not pleased with the hall of fame. >> i went to school in upstate new york, so i stick my head in the door. "hi, there, i'm jim naismith. i'd like to see the rules." and they would find them in the safe. >> in the safe? >> in the safe. >> not displayed? >> no, the hall of fame apparently didn't really know what to do with them or what really needed to be done. >> jim's brother, 42-year-old ian naismith, isn't just dismayed with the hall but with the game itself. for while many think basketball is enjoying a golden age --

bird, jordan, magic, the dream team -- ian sees a sport that has strayed far from their grandfather's original vision. >> he wasn't very happy with the state that basketball was in at the time. >> what's his beef with it? if you recall in the '90s, there were fights on the court, there were fights with fans. he felt it was time to remind the world that the game was a gift. >> underscoring ian's sense that basketball has forgotten its roots, the hall of fame building falls into disrepair and ian fears that when it's renovated, the building will no longer prominently feature his grandfather's name. >> he got upset and told them that he's gonna climb up there himself and spray-paint in orange letters. >> the new building does keep the naismith name, but ian convinces the hall of fame to return the neglected rules to the family. he wants to reform the sport and has a plan to call attention to his cause. in 1995, he hits the road in this rv with his strange

inheritance. >> what's a better attraction than the original 13 rules of basketball from 1891? did he carry it around, the original? >> he carried around the original rules. it was in a gold briefcase. it was fire-proofed, between two plates of glass. but it's in a briefcase. >> ian brings the family heirloom to schools and gives lectures on his grandfather's original hoop dream. >> people say, "well, naismith, you want everything to stay the same. nothing stays the same." sportsmanship, respect, dignity, positive role modeling, and teamwork can stay the same. and should. >> ian travels the rules to big games, like the final four and the nba all stars. >> did your dad ever have them appraised? >> he did. they appraised at approximately $5 million. >> he's driving around with a $5 million-appraised document. >> he had it insured, though. >> he did not have it insured. that premium would have been about $50,000 a year. >> so you can imagine ian's horror on a trip to kansas city.

>> he starts looking around and thinks, "oh, my goodness. where are the rules?" >> you're kidding. that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. the answer when we return.

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the billboard music awards. sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. >> the answer is c. they banned the dunk shot. after lew alcindor, later known as kareem abdul-jabbar, dominated the season, the ban was rescinded in 1976. >> in 2002, ian naismith,

grandson of dr. james naismith, the inventor of basketball, is on a mission to preserve the game's true legacy in the face of what he sees as its ongoing decline. one of the 12 values that dr. naismi saw in the gameas sportsmanship. and my dad felt that was the one thing that was really lacking at that time in the game. >> he spent almost a decade traveling the thirteen original rules, which have been appraised at $5 million, to schools and sporting events. touring the country with a document worth $5 million with no insurance in a gold briefcase -- >> he was a very risk-tolerant person. >> just outside lawrence, kansas, ian realizes the rules have gone missing. >> he finished up a meal, got in his van, and when he gets to lawrence, he starts looking around and thinks, "oh, my goodness. where are the rules?" >> no. >> he called his waitress, who gets on the phone and says, "mr. naismith, i can guarantee

you 100% that i saw you walk out with those rules." and he goes back out to his conversion van and starts tearing it apart. luckily, they were actually in the van. >> that was a close call. >> it was a very close call. the scare helps the family realize they can't keep their strange inheritance forever. >> my brother did talk to me and he said, "in order to properly value and protect, they may have to eventually be sold." and he and i agreed on that. ian contacts leila dunbar, then-director of collectibles at sotheby's auction house in new york. >> her first step -- make sure the rules are the real thing. >> the rules scored a 10/10 because they had come down from dr. naismith to his son to ian naismith. having his signature on it added another layer of documentation and i think added value to it. >> so, what is it worth? at the time, the priciest sports

document is the contract that sent babe ruth to the yankees from the red sox in 1919. in 2005, it sold for $996,000. >> sotheby's believes the naismith rules will fetch more. >> if you're a basketball fan, you could certainly consider them the magna carta of basketball. >> they set the minimum bid at $1.3 million. that's less than the $5 million the rules were once appraised for. the proof will be in the bidding. >> it's like a horse race. you just don't know how it's going to end. >> or where they'll end up. jim, it's like fort knox here. >> [ laughs ] >> next... what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. bp developed new, industry-leading software to monitor drilling operations in real-time, so our engineers can solve problems with the most precise data at their fingertips.

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>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> it's december 2010 in new york city.

the heirs of james naismith, the man who invented basketball, are ready to sell the original set of rules that naismith posted in a ymca gym back in 1891. the famed sotheby's auction house has set the minimum bid at $1.3 million. >> the auction generated a tremendous amount of excitement. >> unbeknownst to the naismith clan, a lawrence, kansas, native and k.u. grad turned texas billionaire named david booth is one of the bidders. >> i was born in lawrence. i grew up naismith drive. >> now he's in the game via telephone from austin, texas. >> this was a highly unprecedented auction. you had bobby kennedy's original copy of the emancipation proclation. you had the only known flag at survived custer's last stand at little bighorn, and then you had the rules. >> talk about competition. the flag from little bighorn sells for $2.2 million.

the emancipation proclamation beats that easily -- $3.7 million. >> you could feel the tension building throughout the other two sales. >> the comes harlem globetrotter curly neal to introduce the basketball rules. the bidding races to $3 million. it's a jump ball between david booth and one other phone bidder. >> did you know who it was? >> i didn't at the time, but it turns out it's a good friend of mine -- david rubenstein. >> rubenstein, also a billionaire, once purchased a 13th century copy of the actual magna carta for more than $20 million. >> about $3.2 million, you could feel mr. rubenstein starting to slow down. he had to think about each bid more carefully. >> and then, the final bid. >> on my left, $3,800,000. >> sold to david booth! >> you paid more than the emancipation proclamation. >> yeah, well,

that's because there's only one original rules, and the emancipation proclamation, i think, had about a dozen. >> with the auction house commission added in, the price comes to $4.3 million, the most ever paid at auction to te f any sports memorabilia. for the heirs of james naismith, the man who invented a game that grew into a multi-billion-dollar worldwide phenomenon, it's a long overdue payday. wait! stop the clock! yes, there's but seconds left in this "strange inheritance" tale, but still time for one last twist. >> turns out, the naismiths don't cash in. they donate their millions from the sale to a charity that helps poor kids with food, clothes, and basketball courts. it was founded by ian naismith, who dies two years after the auction at the age of 73. >> really good things can be done with money, but granddad's focus was people. >> and high bidder david booth

has a surprise, too. he donates the rules to his alma mater and james naismith's old employer, the university of kansas. jim, it's like fort knox here. >> [ laughs ] >> they're keeping it under lock and key, and i can only open it for a few minutes, i'm told. >> it's been a long time since you've saw them. >> it's been a long time. that's it. >> wow. it's very emotional. >> it is emotional. i see here -- 1891. james naismith. granddad's signature. >> and what is your great-grandfather saying, knowing that they've come full circle and they're back here? >> oh, he's cheering somewhere. [ cheering ] >> speaking of goals, one of the quirks of the original game of basketball was that the baskets had no holes in the bottom. so every time somebody scored, you had to climb up there with a ladder and fetch the ball. this was obviously annoying, so somebody figured out a way to build a better basket. swoosh! nothing but net!

i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. [ whistle blows ] >> i am hoop. >> i'm baird jones. >> two eccentrics from new york's disco days. >> if you were on baird's list, your social life was assured. >> two oddball art collections. >> all right. >> mel brooks, david bowie, art carney, muhammad ali. >> but the weirdest thing about this story... >> and it's really solid. nothing's going to fall off. >> ...is how the square from the burbs ends up with both. >> i can only imagine this driving around the streets of new york. >> will this two-for-one strange inheritance -- >> i've got $150, can get a $175? once, twice. first piece sold. >> ...ultimately add up? [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]

[ bird caws ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today and i'm in the pocono mountains of pennsylvania on my way to meet an heir with a head-spinning story that will take us back to 1970s manhattan, the era of punk rock, disco and wild parties at studio 54. >> my name is hugh hooper. back in 2008, my brother hoop received a very strange inheritance. when he died three years later, he left one twice as strange to me. >> hugh, hi. i'm jamie. >> how are you doing, jamie? nice to meet you. >> so great to meet you. you know, i don't come out of manhattan for just anything, but i heard your inheritance is way cool. >> it is. it's crazy. but you can keep manhattan. i'll take the country. >> all right. let's see it. >> you wanna see it? go ahead. >> absolutely. hugh's strange inheritance is actually two separate art collections

that belonged to two separate people. here's some of the first, parked on the pathway outside his home. what is this? >> well, this is hoop's cars. they call this the musicmobile. >> christmas albums, paul simon. [ playing notes ] it still works. and this is just a fraction of the far-out fleet he inherited. >> everything you could imagine, trucks, cars, little bmw isettas where u had to get >>hey do needheadlights. a little bit of repair. >> well, i don't have the heart to touch it. >> that's because the creator of the auto art is his dearly departed brother, steven douglas hooper. >> this is me and my brother. >> steven is born in 1946 and raised in clifton, new jersey.

according to big brother hugh, he's a cutup from an early age. >> my brother was normal until he was about 8, and then he changed. >> uh-oh. what happened? >> he started acting like stan laurel and mugging and dancing around. and he always had this crazy sense of humor. >> the brothers are drawn down two very different paths. hugh joins the army. little steven idolizes pop-art sensation andy warhol and the psychedelic painters of the 1960s. he wants to be part of that scene. >> as he got into high school, he just got totally into art. >> steven takes a few classes at a small art college. big brother hugh gets married and starts a family. >> where did he get the money to pursue a passion and not have to get a real job like the rest of us? >> well, steven had a job. he worked in a book binder. he operated a forklift. >> but when their mother has a serious health setback, the brothers must figure out a plan.

>> we decided not to put her in a nursing home, so my brother gave up his job at the book binder, and i just paid the bills. my brother was like my hero. he took care of my mother. it's my obligation. we're blood of blood. >> in the early 1980s, with their mom in stable health, steven rents a studio in the edgy east village neighborhood of manhattan. and there, in his mid-30s, he begins to shine. hugh's now the guy with the wife and daughter in jersey, running a trucking company. so, it's not his scene, but he loves steven's stories. >> he showed up at a party one night in greenwich village. he was wearing a bright blue tux with black fleur-de-lis. he looked across the room. somebody else had the same tux. it was tiny tim. they became best friends. >> the goofy falsetto-voiced tiny tim is just one of hoop's famous, near famous, or used-to-be-famous acquaintances, and he's driven to achieve fame, too. when he gets his hands on an old

bmw isetta, he covers it in psychedelic fur. the first hoop mobile is born. >> i am hoop, the self-proclaimed king of art. >> my brother loved to introduce us as twins, and then everybody would go, "hmm." we didn't even look like we knew each other. i was military. he was hippie. >> it's not easy to become a well-known artist. you have to do one more outrageous thing after another. >> that means turning more and more cars into zany sculptures. he's the canvertible and the voodoo volkswagen. >> he actually had a van. he cut the front end off of another van. he bolted it on the back of his. he had two front ends. he said, "i don't know if i'm coming or going. it's the time machine." he covered it in clocks, and he drove all over the place. >> around this time, hoop meets a new york preppie name baird jones, who also likes hanging with the glitterati

and who has his own unique artistic vision. you're about to hear about the other half of hugh hooper's strange inheritance. >> this is a picture that james dean drew. this is tony bennett. >> signed "bennett." >> they're all signed. >> signed by muhammad ali, adolf hitler, charles manson, buddy hackett, paul mccartney and more. that's great. >> vincent price. >> after the break... >> but first our "strange inheritance" quiz question. which '70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the solid-gold disco hit "i was made for loving you"? kiss, iron maiden or the ramones? the answer when we return.

>> so, which '70s hard rock band switched gears to cut the disco gold record "i was made for loving you"? it's a, kiss. the song's cowriter, paul stanley, said he wanted to prove it was easy to make a disco hit. >> so, where were we? oh, right. in the middle of a story about how hugh hooper came into inherit not one but two strange art collections. one was a fleet of car sculptures created by his younger brother, steven, also known

as hoop or the king of art, if you please. the second collection, as you're about to see, was curated apparently at significant cost by a classic new york character named baird jones. >> baird had a standard preppy uniform. khaki pants, baseball hat, and would send out these little invitation cards. >> author marianne macy met baird in the early '80s, when he's known as the columbia university grad student who throws the best parties in town. >> he was from a "social register" family. he had numerous graduate deges. >> baird starts collecting art created by pop-culture celebrities, like these scribbled drawings by miles davis and jimmy stewart. others are by stars who are also artists, like anthony quinn and david bowie. baird works for clubs

and discos like the famed studio 54, where he's a doorman and party promoter. >> he was extraordinary at getting together really unlikely combinations of people from preppy to downtown grunge. >> the young nightlife impresario rubbed shoulders with hundreds of new york celebs. he leverages those connections to moonlight as a gossip-column tipster. >> besides inviting me to all of his events, he used to provide gossip-colum. >> richard johnson is a longtime editor for the ultimate big apple gossip column, the new york post's page six. why did people love him? was it his personality or his connections, his ability to throw a good party? >> i imagine that there's a lot of couples out there now with children, who met at one of baird's party.

>> no one knows when and where baird and hoop meet but by the early '80s, they're best buds. they love andy warhol and discover synergy in merging the psychedelic stars with the disco ball. baird and hoop join forces prompting east village artists at in clubs such as max's kansas city, palladium, and webster hall. >> they were big parties. you know, i mean, they were sort of cheesy. he would say on the invites, "copious hors d'oeuvres." so, they'd be 10 people deep. you'd be lucky if you could get one drink before they closed the open bar. >> some events feature baird's growing celebrity art collection. by baird's counting, he spends over a million dollars to add works by bob dylan, dee dee ramone, vincent price, and buddy hackett. he also snatches up works by simply notorious figures -- john gotti,

adolf hitler, charles manson, and john wayne gacy. his art shows attract even more bold-face names. >> he kept a database, and so he could mail out, you know, 5,000 invitations at a time. if you were on baird's list, you know you're going to run into a 100 people you know. you're bound to see hoop. he sort of had the same crew always there. >> but every great party comes to an end. and in 2007, concern is spreading among baird's closest friends, like marianne macy. >> you know, the 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. lifestyle had to change. he didn't look healthy. people's lifestyles changed, and baird was still out there doing a lot of the same stf. >> do you want to do it afteards? >> no, right now is cool. >> i think it was more like wo for him later. >> on february 21, 2008, baird jones, life of the party circuit, is found dead in his apartment. he's 53 years old. do you remember

when you heard he had passed? >> i was shocked. i mean, he was way too young to die, and i didn't know that he had ever had any health problems. >> an autopsy reveals it was a heart attack. in his will, baird gives all his property to his good friend hoop, an estate said to be worth $2 million, not including his celebrity art collection. how surprised was he that he had gotten this inheritance? >> he was pretty surprised. he, he didn't expect it, really. >> i think it would just like baird to take care of his buddy, and that's what he did. >> do you want to see a bunch of the celebrity art downstairs? zero mostel. here's a, a jack kevorkian. >> the inheritance doesn't change hoop much. he busies himself with his cars, which are written up in the new york times. he's even interviewed by geraldo and featured in indie films. >> this is my matchbox mobile. i was commissioned by

the toy company mattel. they gave me 500 cars. you can play with it, too. >> but as fate would have , hoop's wild ride is coming to an end as well. >> tell me what happened. >> he had a rash. he just thought it was psoriasis. and then he got this one rash that didn't disappear, and it continued to get worse. >> the diagnosis -- cancer. >> my artwork gives me inspiration to keep going. i get up, and i look out the window, and i said, "i got to do a little more to that car today." [ barking ] >> hoop keeps up his life as an artist and new york character with help from his older brother. >> i gave him all kinds of nutritional stuff. he had no side effects from the chemo at all right until the very end. >> in september 2011, hoop dies at the age of 64.

>> it's a hole in your life when you lose part of your family. nothing can fill it. >> hoop leaves everything to his big brother, hugh. >> we were opposites but totally bonded. what was mine was his, and what was his was mine. >> and now, what's hugh's are two strange inheritances in one, and as you're about to see, a big dilemma. what to do with it all? >> here's another quiz question for you. these three pictures are from the baird jones celebrity art collection. can you guess which was painted by leonardo dicaprio? "a," "b," or "c"? the answer after the break. something special is happening, and it's only happening here. tuition at new york state public colleges is now free

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>> so, which of these pictures from the baird jones collection was painted by leonardo dicaprio? it's "c." for the record, "a" s inted by jonathan winters, and "b" by dinah shore. >> in 2011, hugh hooper comes into his strange inheritance, two bizarre art collections created and curated by a couple of quintessential new york city characters. the first was his eccentric brother, hoop, who produced dozens of wacky sculptures from various automobiles. the second came from hoop's preppy party-planner pal, baird jones -- a large collection of artworks by a vast array of famous and notorious figures. he focuses first on his brother's car sculptures. two things are immediately clear. he has no place for them,

and there's no place to sell them. >> all the fun in these cars had been had because he isn't here. >> so, hugh lets his brother's friends cart away any hoop mobiles they fancy. but, hugh, aren't you a little concerned that you'll lose that connection to him? >> no. no, the connection isn't in things. the connection's in your heart. >> hugh is less emotionally attached to the second weird art collection. the hundreds of celebrity paintings and drawings that he inherited through his brother from baird jones. who's that? >> okay. that's the queen of monaco. >> ooh. >> grace kelly. >> so, there's royalty. >> yes. >> jimmy stewart. >> jimmy stewart. >> yeah. >> harvey. that was the character. >> john gotti, "bikini," nice. you know what he was thinking about. >> that's one of my favorites. >> remember, baird jones spoke about spending a million dollars to acquire all this artwork. hugh decides to auction it all off.

>> this is muhammad ali. >> in the ring. >> in the ring. >> hugh, you're going to sell this? >> yes, i am because who's going to eoy it? nobody's getting any chance to look at it. that's what art is for, it's for people to appreciate. >> you think it's worth anything? >> i would imagine it is. what, i don't know. >> he's about to find out. let's open up at $1,500. $1,600, $1,700, $1,800. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, srangeinheritance.com.

>> now, back to "strange inheritance." >> in june 2016, hugh hooper's ready to auction off what's left of his strange inheritance, a trove of celebrity artwork collected by a preppy new york party promoter named baird jones. jones is said to have poured more than a million dollars

into the collection before he died and willed it to hugh's brother, hoop. hugh chooses robert rogal of rogallery in long island city to handle the sale. mel brooks, peter falk, jimi hendrix, adolf hitler. >> quite a weird collection but a lot of name-brand material. >> it's the steven hooper, a.k.a. "hoop," celebrity art collection. >> and off we go. internet and phone bidders are standing by. >> opening price on this one is $100. >> it starts quietly with a work entitled "self-portrait with butterfly" by the famous french mime, marcel marceau. >> at $100, $100 and quarter now. got a bid of, go $125. at $125 now, at $125, last call. sold at $100. mel brooks. >> this cartoon scribble by a famous funny man fares

somewhat better. >> $400. peter falk. >> detective columbo beats that easily. >> $600. this john gotti. >> crime pays a little more. >> "bikini on mars," sold for $1,100. we continue. "horror hospital," ink and marker drawing, dee dee ramone. we're at $1,300 right now, looking for $1,400, $1,400. give me $1,500. sold at $1,500. >> and remember that muhammad ali painting called "sting like a bee"? >> $1,500, $1,600, $1,700, >> it packs a bit more punch. >> all done -- $2,800. >> alas, that's the biggest celebrity hit of the night. >> buddy hackett, sold, $250. rudy giuliani, $800. >> at this rate... >> david bowie, sold at $550. jimi hendrix. >> ...baird jones' million-dollar investment in celebrity art... >> sold at $300.

henry fonda. >> ...is looking like a big bust. >> pass it. pass, and we'll pass. moving along. >> this color-pencil doodle by actor ed asner starts with an minimum bid of 400 bucks. >> any bids, $400? and we'll pass. [ buzzer sounds ] >> will matthew broderick do any better? >> any bids at $100? >> $100 only. >> nope. >> and we're passing. [ buzzer sounds ] and we have now "courtyard of the old residency in munich." the artist is adolf hitler. we'll start at $50 and now $75. we're looking for $75 on this. last call, we're at $100. sold at $100 and glad to have it pass me. >> out of the 300 works put up for auction, about a third of them sell. the grand total, 43k. hugh expresses surprise if not disappointment. >> it was some things that didn't sell that really i thought would sell

very easily. but i think it was a good sale, and it also honors my brother, and that's very important to me. >> the unsold items include works by james dean, fred astaire, phyllis diller, and kurt vonnegut, which, come to think of it, is a pretty good start to a invite list for yet another cosmic-art happening baird and hoop are surely planning wherever they are. >> it will be a long time before we see anything like them. they were both really unusual people. together they were fantastic. >> so much that's hip in one generation is totally uncool to the next. old uncle hoop once drove his niece, hugh's daughter, to school in one of his hoop mobiles. the teen was mortified. after that, all hugh had to say to keep her in line was, "watch out, young lady, or uncle hoop will be driving you again tomorrow."

i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> these rules are 0 "war on the little guy." each and every one of this is incomprehensible to me. >> i have no idea what its in this books and i'm a constitutional lawyer. >> the government adds thousands of payments of new rules. >> tough reforms to protect consumers. >> they say we need more. >> there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom. >> we have to depend on the federal government to protect our children. >> but they keep passing more laws. now we're drowning in red tape. >> i can't eat the way i want, drink water the way i